Ramblings from a noisy geek

Don’t be so dramatic! Part 1

So Britain voted to leave the European Union. The leave campaign largely based its campaign on two pillars of “there won’t be an economic impact!” and “immigration must be controlled!”. Essentially the older and less educated people voted Leave after being lied to by the leave campaign. In order to provide evidence to leave voters who even now refuse to admit their mistake I will document on this blog every so often the reality of Brexit.

We’ve had enough of experts

On credit ratings: The UK’s credit rating has been changed to ‘Negative’ by Moodys (one of the ‘big three’ credit agencies). “Moody’s said the referendum result would have “negative implications for the country’s medium-term growth outlook”, and it lowered the UK’s long term issuer and debt ratings to “negative” from “stable”.” Source
Standard and Poor’s has also warned Britain’s top “AAA” credit rating is now at risk. Source

On the value of our currency: “Sterling also plunged, falling more than 8% against the dollar and 6% against the euro.” Source

On the UK stock market: FTSE100 down 3.12%. “In London the FTSE 250, which mostly comprises companies that trade in the UK, shed 7.2% to close at 16,088 points.” This was the worst slide in history. “That was the biggest daily slide for the index, and equated to £25bn being wiped off the value of its companies, according to the LSE.” Source, Source

On the topic of why the FTSE recovered: “”A significant number of FTSE 100 stocks ended the day in positive territory, predominantly those companies with lots of overseas earnings, which stand to benefit from a weaker pound” Source

On the lack of housing: “House builders were also the three biggest fallers on the FTSE 100, with Taylor Wimpey suffering a 29% slide.” Source

On British banks: “Major UK banks were also badly hit. Lloyds fell 21%, while Barclays and RBS both slid 18%. HSBC, which has a large Asian business, fell just 1.4%.” Source

On the European stock market: “European markets have been well and truly spanked, however, with the Dax in Frankfurt down 6.8% – its worst day since the financial crisis in 2008, the Cac in Paris shed 8%, Madrid fell 12%, while Milan takes the wooden spoon with a 12.5% plunge.” Source

On the US stock market: “Wall Street wobbled further in the last hour of trading in New York, with the Dow Jones ending more than 600 points, or 3.4%, lower at 17,400 points – the biggest one-day fall in almost five years. The S&P 500 fell 3.6% – the biggest daily slide in 10 months – while the Nasdaq slumped 4.1%. That was the tech-focused index’s worst day since 2011.” Source

On the price of fuek: Prices are likely to rise: ‘Retailers and the AA motoring organisation warned that petrol prices were likely to rise by 2p-3p a litre because of the pound’s fall against the dollar.’ Source

On growth: “BBC business correspondent Joe Lynam tells a special edition of Business Live that UBS is predicting UK economic growth will swiftly fall to zero this year. The Swiss bank forecasts that GDP will remain at zero for much of 2017, raising the strong likelihood of a recession, he says. It won’t take much – economic growth slowed to 0.4% in the first quarter of the year.” Source

On jobs: “Sources within Morgan Stanley have told the BBC that the bank is stepping up a process that could see up to 2,000 of its London-based investment banking staff being relocated to Dublin or Frankfurt.” Source Airbus, which employs thousands in the UK, said: “Britain will suffer” and “Of course we will review our UK investment strategy, like everybody else will.” Source

Its alright though, because: “Andrea Leadsom, a Leave MP, says there “just is not the evidence” of a financial meltdown hitting the UK in the wake of the vote, as predicted by some Remain campaigners.”

Lies, damn lies, and leave campaign lies

On spending money on the NHS instead of the EU: Farage admits that the idea of spending the ‘£350 million a week’ figure which we ‘send to the EU’ (which was proven to be a lie before the vote) will not be spent on the NHS. Source.

On immigration and the free movement of people: “Meanwhile, Conservative MEP and Leave campaigner Daniel Hannan told BBC Newsnight he could envisage a situation where the UK had “free movement of labour” and “From earlier on the Big Decision, Conservative MEP and Leave campaigner Dan Hannan said there was no promise to reduce immigration by leaving the European Union.” Source

On France moving Calais border checks back to the UK: During the campaign it was suggested by France that they would no longer honour a 2003 deal in Calais. The leave campaign said this was ‘fear mongering’. Not surprisingly within 24 hours of the Brexit vote France said they would indeed end the deal.”The British must take the consequences of their choice,” she said on Friday. Source

On stable government: David Cameron claimed he would stay on as Prime Minister even if he lost the referendum, and we were told by Leave campaigners that he should stay on whatever the outcome. The reality: he resigned. Source

On the ‘United’ Kingdom: The leave campaign assured us that there would be no second Scottish independence referendum. After Scotland voted to remain overwhelmingly the Scottish government has begun work to hold one. Source

On trade deals with the rest of the world: “A White House spokesman said Mr Obama “stands by what he said” about the UK going to “the back of the queue” when it comes to trade deals with the US.” Source

This of course was just the first 24 hours. Uncertainty is the order of the day.